5/4/2023 0 Comments Pulse shooting![]() Negron and Murray agreed that required reforms include a ban on assault weapons and an expansion of background checks with a “mental health element”, as Murray put it. “It’s hard to believe that when you feel like the conversations you’ve had for the past five going on six years, hasn’t seen any real difference in the gun violence that we’re seeing as a whole.” “When you encounter something like being held hostage for three hours and seeing other people around you dying,” she said, of her own experience, “and then see repeated instances of terror constantly on the news, it takes a certain level of tenacity and resilience to believe that anything that you say, or anything that you do on this world matters. With all the collective trauma that we’ve experienced with Covid and consistent violence on communities, I think that we should really restrict access to powerful weapons of war Ricardo Negronįor Murray, seeing gun violence surge after Pulse with no tenable solutions offered brought up feelings of despondency. “I’m transported to that mindset of this could literally happen in any school now,” he said. For him, the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in May, where 19 children and two teachers were killed, stoked fears that such an incident could happen at his nephews’ schools. Negron said each mass shooting is a reminder that such violence can always happen again. “I’m reminded that we’re still in the same place that we were before, of hoping that we could see a change with policy.” “When I see mass shootings, in particular, and any gun violence, it always hits a point of hurt and sadness,” said Murray. ‘We’re still in the same place’įor those who survived the Pulse shooting, the failure to address gun violence continues to be traumatic. LGBTQ+ people, especially youth, are also more likely to attempt suicide than members of the general population: incidents that are likely to involve a firearm. Visitors pay tribute at the Pulse nightclub memorial on the fifth anniversary of the shooting last year. ![]() While specific data on how gun violence affects queer and trans demographics is lacking, available research shows that since 2013 more than two-thirds of fatal incidents involving transgender or gender non-conforming people have involved a firearm. Also rising were suicides with a firearm, which make up the majority of gun deaths, and murders involving a gun, accounting for 24,292 and 19,384 deaths respectively.įor LBGTQ+ communities, gun violence is a persistent issue. In 2020, more Americans died from gun-related causes in 2020 than any other year on record. Within the past month, mass shootings have occurred in places including a church, a hospital, a school and a grocery store.Īmerica is haunted by gun violence. Since Pulse, the deadliest attack on LGBTQ+ communities in US history, mass shootings have increased and affected almost every facet of American life. Mass shootings are widely held to be incidents in which four people not including the shooter are hurt or killed. ![]() And they’re vulnerable, pouring their hearts out to these leaders, and then nothing happens.” Patience Murray, an author and entrepreneur who was also in the club, said: “We’ve had so many survivors, so many families that have been left behind and they tell their story. “It is triggering and it is infuriating that we have to continue living like this.” “It is incredibly disappointing,” said Ricardo Negron, a voting rights advocate who survived the attack.
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